Structure and thermodynamics of platelet dispersions

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical and experimental studies on the structure and thermodynamics of platelet dispersions, highlighting how particle shape, size distribution, and orientation influence fluid properties.

Contribution

It summarizes recent advances in the statistical mechanics modeling and experimental analysis of platelet fluids, emphasizing the impact of shape, polydispersity, and order.

Findings

Structural properties depend on platelet shape and orientation.

Interactions influence thermodynamic behavior of platelet fluids.

Recent models improve understanding of platelet dispersion properties.

Abstract

Various properties of fluids consisting of platelike particles differ from the corresponding ones of fluids consisting of spherical particles because interactions between platelets depend on their mutual orientations. One of the main issues in this topic is to understand how structural properties of such fluids depend on factors such as the shape of the platelets, the size polydispersity, the orientational order, and the platelet number density. A statistical mechanics approach to the problem is natural and in the last few years there has been a lot of work on the study of properties of platelet fluids. In this contribution some recent theoretical developments in the field are discussed and experimental investigations are described.